Addiction as Entrenchment

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Dennis HackethalOP revised about 1 year ago·#744
Show idea #735Show idea #7323rd of 3 versions leading to #745 (5 total)

My conjecture

Conjecture: addiction is the result of the entrenchment of a conflict between two or more preferences in a mind.

Picture a smoker who wants to give up smoking but also really enjoys smoking. Those preferences conflict.

If the conflict is entrenched, then both preferences get to live on indefinitely. The entrenchment will not let the smoker give up smoking. He will become a chain smoker.

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Dennis HackethalOP, about 1 year ago·#733

How is this theory new?

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Dennis HackethalOP, about 1 year ago·#745

Prevailing explanations of addiction (#734) attribute it to desensitization. My theory doesn’t do that.

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Dennis HackethalOP, about 1 year ago·#747

Superseded by #746. This comment was generated automatically.

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